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THE 



PiECONSTPtUCTION OF STATES. 



LETTER OF lAJOR-GENERAL BANKS 



TO 



SEITATOE LANE. 




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NEW-YORK : 
H^RFEE, & D3 R O T H E R S, 

FRANKLIN SQUARE. 



1865. 



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1 



I 



THE RECONSTRUCTION OF STATES. 



LETTKR OF MAJOR-GENERAL N. P. BANKS TO SENATOR LANE. 



Hon. James H. Lane, Senator of Kansas : 

Sir : The earnest and generous support that you voluntarily 
and unexpectedly rendered the representatives of Louisiana in 
the National Convention at Baltimore, gave to her loyal people 
unalloyed satisfaction. AVhenever opportunity offers, it will be 
acknowledged by them with gratitude. 

I recall, wdth pleasure, our personal and political association 
as members of the Thirty-third Congress, when we sustained, at 
the opening of the revolution, as now, at its close, the same gen- 
eral principles of public policy. 

You have passed the fiery ordeal involved in the organiza- 
tion of government amid the contests of civil war, and know 
the perils as well as the diflBiculties of this duty. Such con- 
siderations lead me to ask your attention to some thoughts 
connected with public matters in Louisiana affecting its rela- 
tions to the Government and people. My ofiicial connection 
with its mihtary and civil affairs, for nearly two years, will, 
I trust, be a sufficient apology for this course. 

Let me assure you that your faith in the people, without 
which public service is impotent for good, has not been, in this 
instance, misplaced. The loyal people of Louisiana merit, in an 
eminent degree, the generous confidence and support of the Gov- 
ernment and people of the United States. 

Until recently, I have not had an opportunity to examine the 
bill passed at the late session of Congress, providing for the re- 
construction of government in rebel States. 



4 THE RECONSTRUCTION OF STATES. 

The Proclamation of tlie President, and tlie Protest of tlie 
Hon. ]\[essrs. Wade and Davis relating to this measure, attract- 
ed general attention here. It was not generally understood how- 
far, or in what respect the course of public events in Louisiana 
was in conflict with the jDlan proposed by Congress. 

It was perfectly apparent from the character of the Protest, 
that its authors but imperfectly understood the condition of 
' things, and that their informant, whoever he may have been, or 
from whatever source he may have received his information, 
had misled them. What influence this may have had upon the 
President or the people it is not in my power nor within my 
province to determine. But whatever wrong impression has 
been made will be eradicated, I am certain, by a knowledge of 
the facts. 

The traditions of Congress, as well as my personal connec- 
tion with its histor}^, lead me to regard with the highest respect 
its opinions, and to render to its legislation the most unreserv- 
ed and loyal obedience and support. I am sure that the people 
here entertain the same patriotic sentiment. Nothing further 
from their purpose or desire can be imagined than the idea that 
they would encourage or avail themselves of a temporary dif- 
ference of opinion between the executive and legislative branch- 
es of the Grovernment, to foster their interests or establish their 
power. In this feeling, which I know to be honest and general, 
I concur to the fullest extent. 

No attention was given to the provisions of the bill for recon- 
struction of government in seceding States, and but little inter- 
est was manifested in legislation on that subject because it was 
known that no law would be enacted by any Congress not wed- 
ded to the principles of secession, or not inflexibly opposed to 
the return of erring States to the Union, to which Louisiana 
could not and would not instantly and gladly assent. 

The Proclamation of the President, and the Protest of the 
honorable Chairmen of the Committees of the Senate and House 
of Kepresentatives respectively on that subject, were received 
and read with astonishment- 
It was supposed, from the intensity of the discussion and the 
asperity of the allusions to the State of Louisiana, that some 
new and important views, deemed by Congress indispensable 



THE EECOXSTEUCTION OF STATES, 5 

to tlie reconstruction of tlie Union, had been intentionally dis- 
regarded. 

You will imagine my surprise wLen I found, upon an atten- 
tive perusal of the bill, that here, at least, every material provi- 
sion had been anticipated, every substantial guarantee had been 
recognized and established. If the measure had been an ap- 
proving and critical review of constitutional proceedings here, 
it would require no material change in legislation on the one 
hand, or of constitutional reconstruction on the other, to harmo- 
nize the proposition with the result. I feel assured that the 
doubts of the President, the members of Congress and the peo- 
ple, will be in a great degree removed by a correct report of the 
actual situation. 

There are many subjects embodied in the Protest to which I 
need not refer, interesting to the people of Louisiana as to other 
citizens of the United States. 

The right of the President to withhold his approval of meas- 
ures initiated by Congress, needs no assertion. It has been too 
often exercised and too strongly and boldly vindicated by the 
Executive and the people to make it necessary to volunteer a 
word in its defense. And yet it is a subject that can not be too 
much or too carefully considered, because it involves the perfec- 
tion of our Government in theory, and its success in joractice. 
The Government carefully represents in its different branches all 
the material elements of public power. 

The House represents local popular opinion, modified or con- 
trolled by local j)rejudices, passions, interests. The sudden 
neighborhood pulsations, whether excited by social, moral, or 
political ideas, affect the representative tone, through the fre- 
quency of elections, in proportion to their intensity or extent. 
The Senate represents public opinion through the agency of 
States. The President is the sole direct representative of the 
whole people. An intermediate constitutional barrier, intended 
probably to separate somewhat the President from the people, 
in the form of electors, has been abandoned, except in form, by 
universal consent. The honest sentiment of the vicinage deemed 
so important by Saxon legislators, of corporate or aristocratic 
interests, and of pure, undefiled democracy, are thus all fully re- 
presented. The union of these diverse political elements gives 



6 THE RECONSTRUCTION" OF STATES. 

peace, prosperity, and power to theAmerican people. The dissent ^ 
of one defers, but docs not defeat, any measure. We sometimes 
have too much legislation, rarely too little. We lose nothing by 
delay where ultimate harmony is possible. The universe is 
the patrimony of patient men. 

Neither do I see substantial cause of alarm in the suggestion 
of the President, that he will follow, in part, the opinions of 
Congress, expressed in a measure which, failing to receive his 
approval, docs not become a law. Tlie President has civil and 
military functions. He is invested with constitutional powers, 
pertinent to the conditions of peace and war. No declaration of 
war can be made without consent of Congress, but once waged 
by its order, it can not restrict the military powers of the Presi- 
dent as commander-in-chief. 

The recognition of any of these powers in a bill of civil 
nature, does not confer them, nor if it fails, does it defeat them. 
In one case he exercises a recognized power ; in the other, it is 
a reversion consequent upon the military situation. The initia- 
tion of measures has been regarded as an affair of insignificant 
import throughout our constitutional history, where the con- 
current right of assent or dissent to the legislation which gives 
them constitutional and permanent validity, is unimpaired. No 
material power is conferred upon the President by the bill 
which he does not derive from the nature of his office and the 
necessities of the country. Why, then, charge him " with grave 
executive usurpation " in the contemplated exercise of power 
which, was recognized but not conferred by the measure in 
question ? 

It is a matter of grateful reflection to us, however, that this 
discussion has no relation to the affairs of Louisiana. Whether 
the legislation of Congress or the instructions of the President 
as Coinmander-in-Chief, or both together, are to be law, is 
immaterial. She has answered the substantial requisitions 
of either and both. She has done much more than has 
been demanded, and nothing material has been omitted. Her 
standard has been higher and purer than that of Congress or 
the executive, because she alone has been conscious of the ex- 
tent of her capacit}^, which is the measure of her action, but 



THE EECONSTEUCTION OF STATES. / 

not of her loyal and patriotic aspirations. Mark how complete- 
ly her action corresponds to the requisitions of Congress! 

The white male citizens as described in the bill, were en- 
rolled for military service to the number of twenty-three thou- 
sand in the most populous parishes, preparatory to draft in 1863. 
Measures have been taken to renew and complete the enroll- 
ment in all the parishes. 

Every person enrolled who has taken the oath, has been in- 
vited to participate in the election of delegates to a Constitution- 
al Convention. 

Nine thousand nine hundred and fourteen loyal voters have 
been registered under the iron-clad oath in the Parish of Orleans 
alone, and there are from fifteen thousand to eighteen thousand 
voters registered in the State as subscribers to the same oath on 
the parish poll-books. 

Delegates to the Convention were apportioned to "the white 
male population," not of enrolled electors merely, but of the 
whole State ; and the number fixed as prescribed by the Con- 
stitution and laws of the State, " applicable to legislative assem- 
blies." 

Thirty days' notice was given of elections. 

Commissioners of election have been appointed " according 
to the laws and usage of the State." 

The delegates were chosen by " white male citizens of the 
United States," twenty-one years of age, who had " the qualifi- 
cations required by law." 

Soldiers who had enlisted in the army from this State were 
permitted to vote at the polls opened at their respective com- 
mands by regularly appointed commissioners of election, not 
by military officers, where it was impossible for them to vote in 
established legal precincts. 

So far as it is known, no person who has held office under 
the confederate government, or who has borne arms against 
the United States, has participated in these elections. 

Tlie oath of allegiance prescribed by the act of Congress of 
1862, or the " iron-clad " oath of the President's proclamation 
of December eighth, 1863, have been administered to every 
voter. In most cases both have been administered. 



8 THE RECONSTRUCTION OF STATES. 

The poll-books at all elective precincts, have been or will be 
deposited with the Provisional Governor of the State. 

The Constitution declares the abolition of slavery, prohibits 
involuntary servitude except for crime, and interdicts forever 
the recognition of property in man. It makes all men equal 
before the law. It declares that no liability, either State, pa- 
rochial, or municipal, shall exist for any debt contracted for on 
the interest of the rebels against the Government of the United 
States. 

The only provision of the bill not embodied in the Constitu- 
tion is that which denies the elective franchise to men who 
have borne arms against the United States. The Convention 
would have readily adopted this provision, but, although the 
State under the Constitution establishes the conditions of suf- 
frage even for members of Congress, it was impracticable for 
Louisiana to overthrow the policy of the General Government 
in this respect. The principal officer of the Treasury in New- 
Orleans once held a commission in the rebel army, and the quar- 
termaster and chiefs of other departments have been ordered to 
employ in public service deserters from the enemy. A State 
can not well deny the right of suffrage to high and permanent 
civil oflS.cers of the Government. The general policy on this 
subject ought to be established by the Government, without re- 
gard to the action of separate States. It is a question incident 
to peace and war. 

Thus all the substantive, material conditions of the bill pass- 
ed by the two Houses of Congress have been anticipated and 
answered in the elections held in Louisiana. So fur as the 
people are concerned, nothing has been omitted, required by 
Congress, material to the purity of elections, the loyalty of the 
people, or the 'dignity of the government they have organized. 
In many respects, the results of the popular action have been 
of a higher character, and have given guarantees of security far 
beyond those required by Congress. As, for instance, the Pro- 
visional Governor authorized by the bill to be appointed by the 
President, has not only been designated and commissioned by 
him, but has also received the formal approval of the people, 
expressed at a regular election by a large majority of loyal 
voters. 

There are other considerations not appertaining to the gov- 



THE EECONSTRUCTION' OF STATES. 9 

ernment of tlie State, but relative to tlie G-overnment of the 
United States, not unworthy consideration, and which may or 
may not be applied to Louisiana when she asks recognition as 
one of the States of the Union. 

The bill provides that upon the adoption of a Constitution, it 
shall be transmitted to the President of the United States, and 
after it has received the assent of Congress, an election of Eep- 
resentatives and Senators may be ordered. This is a question 
of time, not of principle, and is, therefore, immaterial, except as 
a form of proceeding. But the doctrine asserted, is one of vital 
consequence to the people and Government. 

The creation or admission of a State requires : First, the con- 
sent of the people of the State proposed, formally expressed ; 
Second, that of the Executive department ; Third, of the Sen- 
ate ; and Fourth, of the House of Kepresentatives. No State 
can be created or admitted to the Union without the independ- 
ent consent of each one of these branches of government. By 
the Constitution, the consent of each must be independent of 
the action of others. Thus, to constitute a State, the people 
must consent to perform certain duties incumbent upon citizens 
of the United States, and to recognize the Constitution and laws 
made in pursuance thereof The President must appoint, sub- 
ject to certain conditions. Federal officers to administer the 
laws, and enforce the rights of the Central Government within 
that State. The Senate of the United States has the right by 
the Constitution, independent of all other powers of the Gov- 
ernment, to decide whether it will or will not receive repre- 
sentatives of the State as members of the Senate. The House 
of Eepresentatives, by the same authority, has the same high 
privilege. The wisdom of the framers of the Constitution is 
seen more clearly in this than in any other provision which it 
contains. It shows a Union founded upon such general con- 
currence as to make it impossible that it shall be severed, and 
the strongest argument against secession, for the suppression of 
which the armies of the United States are now contending, is 
found in the fact that a Union formed by the consent of the peo- 
ple, the executive and representative departments of the Fed- 
eral Government, can not be sundered except by the separate 
and absolute consent of each one of these parties. It is a right 



10 THE EECONSTRUCTION OF STATES. 

wliicli tlie Constitution gives to each, and of wbicli they can 
never be deprived. Neither party can under any circumstances 
surrender or imj^air tlie power which is conferred upon it by the 
Constitution. 

It is true that Congress has often passed laws instructing the 
people of a Territory as to the measures proper for the initiation 
of government, but it has no power to compel their acceptance. 
It may, by coercive measures, destroy and replace such people, 
but it must still leave them the right of assent or dissent to 
such measures. This is a question of great magnitude, which 
must be met at a day not distant. 

To surrender this on the part of any one of these parties 
would be an act deserving the reprobation of Government and 
people. Inasmuch as those powers can not be disregarded, im- 
paired, or surrendered, it is equally clear that they can not be 
delegated ; that no exterior influence or power can be acknow- 
ledged which assumes to control any one of these separate and 
independent branches of the Government in the exercise of the 
functions conferred upon it by the Constitution. Any act of 
Congress, therefore, which undertakes to declare in what man- 
ner the people of a State shall apply ; in what form, or whe- 
ther or not the President shall receive and assent to the ap- 
plication of the State, whether the Senate shall receive or re- 
ject, or the House of Representatives admit or exclude persons 
claiming representative power in the Government, is an inva- 
sion of the constitutional rights of these independent, separate 
powers, which can never be justified or defended. 

It is impossible that the views expressed by Congress should 
be received otherwise than with the most profound respect, es- 
pecially by the ofl&cers of the various Executive and Judicial 
Departments of the Government, so far as they may be consist- 
ent with the rights, opinions, interests, and liberties of the peo- 
ple or the constitutional powers of the Government. Wherever 
they are known, they will be recognized and obeyed as law. 
The people often bow to that which is not law because it ought 
to be law. This is Divine Wisdom. The very existence of 
our Government depends upon the recognition of the para- 
mount respect due to the recommendations of the different de- 



THE RECONSTRUCTION OF STATES. 11 

partments of the Government, and it becomes more potent in 
proportion as it receives the approval of all the departments 
of the Government. But to assert that Congress has the pow- 
er, with or without the consent of the President, to pass an act 
which shall strip these coordinate branches of the independent 
powers conferred upon them by the Constitution, and whicb 
would be fatal to the independence or the perpetuity of the 
Government itself, is an error so glaring, and so pregnant with 
permanent public injury, that it is impossible to believe it would 
receive the countenance or support of any considerable portion 
of the people. 

This must be the case even where a Congress passes an act 
with a view to the momentary limitation of its own powers sim- 
ply. How much greater force must it have — how much more 
ponderous the objection — when it is incident and applied to an 
act of Congress, intended to restrict and limit the irrepealable 
constitutional power of its successors, or the coordinate branches 
of the Government. Nothing is more true, nothing connected 
with the interests of the Government more important, than 
that Congress in the creation or admission of States can not bind 
its successors. It can neither surrender nor assume powers. 
The very instant that the Senate or the House concurs in a 
measure of limitation, restriction, or surrender, the successor of 
each member will not only be entirely free to disregard the obli- 
gation imposed by the statute, but the members voting for it, 
will be at liberty instantaneously to disregard its provisions 
or assert the opposite of its doctrines. Any legislation of this 
character must be momentarily changing. It can not be perma- 
nent. The concurrence of the President would not change its 
character. It is not in human power without amendment of the 
organic law to give to such a measure, in a parliamentary sense, 
the dignity and authority of " an act." It is an opinion of high 
and paramount import, but not " an act." If it had been in- 
vested with the forms of law by the approval of the President, 
the instant a State applies for admission, or claimants for repre- 
sentative honors stand at the bar of Senate or House, each body 
will be absolved from any obligation imposed by the law, and 
compelled by the oaths of its members to follow the Constitution, 



12 THE RECONSTRUCTION OF STATES. 

wliicli makes cacli House tlie exclusive and independent judge 
of the qualification of its own members. 

Let the boundaries of power be preserved ! The rights of 
persons, the peace of neighborhoods, the permanency of govern- 
ments — all that Saxon civilization identifies with equality, jus- 
tice, and honor, depends upon the observance of metes and 
bounds, the religious preservation of the monuments of the 
progress of nations. Words of purer wisdom never fell from 
executive lips than those contained in the declaration that the 
President is unwilling to be " inflexibly committed to any sin- 
gle plan of restoration." That guarantees absolute and certain 
for the peace of the country and the liberty of all its people ; 
that indemnity for the past and security for the future should 
be demanded, is wise and just. Such demands ought never to 
be waived ; but the time, the method, the agents, the circum- 
stances that may attend the great consummation ; the localities 
where action should be hastened and where it should be repres- 
sed are topics which may wisely be left to the peculiar atmos- 
phere of States, the softening effects of time, the necessities of 
the people, the potent influence of the recreated Union, and the 
beneficent and healing power of the providence of God. It is 
the supererogation of wisdom to confound the material with the 
immaterial — to stake the success of that which is vital and ne- 
cessary upon the chances attending that which is unreal and 
transitory. 

POPULATION AND VOTERS. 

The statement made that Louisiana does not control half the 
population or half the territory of the State, is very far from 
the truth. That a large portion of the State is not occupied by 
the Government is true ; but it is equally true that a large 
portion is occupied by nobody else. A material part of the 
territory is to this day unoccupied either by the Union or rebel 
forces. But it is unjust to say that, with the exception of a 
small and distant portion of the State, it is beyond the control 
of the Government. Occupation and control are essentially dif- 
ferent things. Occupation is the work of the people ; control 
is the work of the army. 

If it be an assertion, intended for history as well as legisla- 
tion, that the loyal people of Louisiana are incapable of main- 



THE EECONSTRUCTION OF STATES. 13 

tainiug their authority throughout the State or against the forces 
of the enemy, secret or public, within her boundaries, it should 
be met by stern and unqualified denial. 

Nearly ten thousand white troops and fifteen thousand col- 
ored soldiers have been enlisted here in the armies of the 
Union. They are among the best men of the service. Every 
battle-field from the Rio Grande to Port Hudson and Florida, 
has been honored by their valor and hallowed by their blood. 
Against domestic foes Louisiana is able, unaided, to vindicate 
her rights throughout her territory. Against the concentrated 
armies of other States, she requires, as others do, the support 
of her loyal sister States.- 

It is not territory, however, but the people, that constitute 
a State. It would be impossible to commit a greater error 
than to assume, as do the authors of this Address, that the 
" eleven parishes we substantially held," at the late elections, 
"had 233,185 inhabitants, and the residue of the State, not 
held by us, had 575,617." It is incredible that such an assump- 
tion should be made, or that even " the gentleman entitled to 
entire confidence," who has given so much information in re- 
lation to the affairs of Louisiana, should have supposed the 
population to be the same as that existing at the opening of 
the war. Yet this extraordinary error appears in the quotation 
cited above. The inevitable result of war is the destruction 
of population, None that the world ever witnessed has been 
more prolific of blood than this in which we are now engaged. 
Prussia lost in her seven years' war ten per cent of her entire 
population, counting the casualties of war alone. This is 
true of a population which remained in the kingdom when it 
did not find bloody graves in battle. The destruction of life 
in our armies. North and South, is already greater than that of 
Prussia. The Southern States, in addition to the decimations 
of battle, have sustained equal or greater losses by exile or 
removal. The Secretary of State for the rebel government, 
stated in the presence of Mr. Davis, President of the Confed- 
eracy, in reference to the losses already sustained, that " they 
had/owr million people left." 

No State has suffered greater losses in population than Lou- 
isiana. From forty-two to forty-five thousand able-bodied men 



14 THE RECONSTRUCTION OF STATES. 

liave enlisted in tlie rebel army, the remnant of whicli is in 
other States. As many negroes accompanied the army, or fled 
with their owners, to surrounding States or to Europe. Death 
in every form has been busy with her people. Of 331,726 
slaves in 1860, nearly one quarter have died or left the State. 
The mortality of the black population in the commencement of 
the struggle until furnished with employment and comfortable 
homes, was appalling. It is doubtful if any people in any age 
ever sustained such losses from such causes. Including enlist- 
ments, deaths, exile, and removal to other Southern States, to 
the North and to Europe, the reduction of the white population 
is nearly equal to the loss among the blacks. Of 708,000 
whites and blacks in 1860, there are now not more than 451,- 
000 within the State, two thirds of whom are within the lines 
of our arm3\ Almost the entire negro population, not only of 
Northern Louisiana, but of the surrounding States, and numer- 
ous M^hite families, have taken refuge here. The population of 
New-Orleans, from this cause, is larger now than ever before, 
while many other parishes have been nearly depopulated. A 
gentleman twenty years a citizen of Louisiana, writes me 
under date of the thirteenth instant, that of twelve hundred 
voters, the largest number ever voting in his parish, ten full 
companies had been sent into the rebel army from that parish, 
and that every other able-bodied man of the parish was either 
in the Union army, a refugee, or resident within the Union 
lines. " I recently traveled through Catahoula," he says, 
" and found it almost depopulated. This will account for the 
paucity of our vote. Incredible as it may appear, I doubt, if 
an election could have been held in the usual manner, it could 
have given a larger vote." Other parishes in that part of the 
State have suffered equal loss. The most perfidious revolt, the 
most causeless war of human history, has thus already been fol- 
lowed by unparalleled retribution ! How unjust to the people, 
how unwise in legislation, how unjust in the informer, whoever 
he may be, to represent or assume that the population of these 
parishes is that of 1860 ! 

Is it possible, in the presence of such facts, with the terrible 
results of nearly four years' war before our eyes, that it can be 
asserted as a condition of the reconstruction of State govern- 



THE RECONSTRUCTION OF STATES. 15 

ments, that the population of the State remains, and must be 
estimated, as before the war? Or that parishes which have 
been overrun six times bj the Union and rebel armies within a 
year and a half are to be estimated upon the census of 1860 ? 
What is the present population of Northern Virginia? Let 
those answer who have witnessed the devastation of the Eap- 
pahannock and Shenandoah Valleys, or the mountain regions of 
the Upper Potomac ! 

Considering the drain of able-bodied men by the army, most 
of whom were politicians, and the large number of Creoles 
who never claimed citizenship, though natives of the soil, it is 
probable that the number qualified to vote by the laws of the 
State, all told, is not over 25,000. 

Of these, from fifteen to seventeen thousand are registered 
loyal voters within the lines of the army, all of whom have 
taken the iron-clad oath, many of them in addition to the oath 
prescribed by the act of Congress. Nine thousand nine hun- 
dred and fourteen loyal voters are registered, with name and 
residence, in the parish of Orleans alone. 

The highest vote in New-Orleans in ten years, with the 
gigantic frauds of which there is record proof, was 9498, and 
the average vote in the same period numbers 7565. Between 
eleven and twelve thousand citizens voted at the election of the 
twenty-second of February, and over nine thousand on the 
ratification of the Constitution, which received a majority of 
5379 votes. Probably ten thousand different men voted at 
this election, which, except in two districts, was without con- 
test ! The whole number of soldiers voting at the first election 
was 808, and at the second 1178. 

The vote on the twenty-second of February was 11,400. 
The vote for Governor in the same parishes now within our 
lines, has ranged for the last ten years from fifteen to sixteen 
thousand. In 1853 it was 15,760. In 1859 it was 16,143. 
In 1860, when the tocsin of revolution and civil war was heard 
throughout the land, the aggregate vote for Lincoln, Douglas, 
Bell, and Breckinridge was but 21,000. 

These parishes have suffered in population from the war, with 
others ; and yet, as I have said, from 15,000 to 17,000 voters 
are now registered, and 11,400 have been polled in the organ- 



16 THE RECONSTRUCTION OF STATES. 

ization of the State government. Extraordinary circumstances 
only liavc prevented the full number being given. 

The organization of the government has been opposed by a 
powerful party in the North. The General Government ad- 
vised but did not assist in this work. Military men as a gener- 
al rule rely more upon force for success than upon admin- 
istration. 

High civil officers have been openly hostile. An educated 
loyal man in civil office informed me that he was not at liberty 
to vote nor to attend meetings in favor of the Constitution. It 
was reported, and by many believed, that every man who regis- 
tered and voted would be drafted for military service. It was 
said that the State would not be recognized. There was no real 
contest at the polls to draw men out. Opponents thought to 
discredit the Constitution by absenting themselves from the 
polls, and the men who should have opposed the measures here, 
falsified the facts by misrepresentations to the people of the 
North. Several of the parishes were threatened with invasion 
by the enemy. The last election occurred in the usual month of 
fever, when many were absent. Such causes diminished in a 
material degree the aggregate vote. Men are proverbially timid 
and irresolute amid revolutions, and the organization of govern- 
ment here called for more than ordinary courage, devotion, and 
loyalty. But the number is more than equal to half the largest 
vote ever given in the same parishes ; it is two thirds of the or- 
dinary vote in ten years jD^ist, and the register numbers more 
than three quarters the greatest vote ever polled in the most 
excited elections ever held. It is an intelligent and honest vote ! 
The more it is investigated the brighter it will appear. The 
Constitution created is an honor to the age in which it is given 
to the world. 

No " generals, provost-marshals, or camp-followers," have 
ever been " chief actors " in any election, or " assisted by a 
handful of citizens," or " urged on by private letters from the 
President," have participated in these elections ! 

At every election precinct, loyal citizens, sworn to perform 
their duties according to the laws of the State, have been ap- 
pointed to preside at elections by civil officers, never by officers 



THE EECONSTEUCTION OF STATES. 17 

of the army. No State lias more carefully guarded the law by 
■which elections are governed. 

No provost-marshal has been authorized to take any part in 
an election, except where commissioners, properly appointed, 
have failed by accident to discharge their duties. No general, 
or other officer, has done more in any election, than to return 
to my headquarters, for transmission to the President, the lists 
of soldiers claiming the right to vote as citizens of this State. 
No election has ever been held less influenced by improper 
authoritj^ civil or military, or less vitiated by fraud, than the 
elections this year in Louisiana. If the Constitution, the Sen- 
ators, and Representatives, be received by Congress, that august 
body will never know a more honest and just representation of 
the people of a loyal State ! 

In connection with the fact which I affirm, that more than 
one half of the entire voting population of the State within and 
beyond the lines, are registered, loyal voters, qualified upon the 
" iron clad " oath to participate in elections, it is my duty to say 
that the apportionment of political power in the election of del- 
egates, and in the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention, 
manifests a still higher regard for the rights of the people. 
Instead of assuming as its basis the white male population 
of the present day, deducting the losses sustained by the 
slaughter and exile of nearly four 3^ears' sanguinary war, as re- 
quired by the bill recently approved by Congress, the people 
accepted as a basis of representation the population of 1860, 
numbering 708,000, instead of 451,000. They assumed that 
every election district was invested with the right to vote, was 
duly represented, and j)rovided by the rules of the Convention 
that every proposition, of whatever character, affecting the priv- 
ileges of members or the rights of the peojDle should receive a 
majority of all the votes that would be cast if the entire po2>- 
ulation of 1860 were represented in that Convention. It de- 
clared that a quorum for the transaction of business, should bo 
an actual majority of all the delegates from every election pre- 
cinct in the State, assuming that every soul and every district 
was represented according to the population of 1860. This 
rule was made when the opinions of members of the Conven- 
tion, on any subject, were unknown. 

2 



18 THE RECONSTRUCTION OF STATES. 

Two thirds of the white population, and two thirds of the 
entire voting population of the State were permanently repre- 
sented in the Convention. 

Neither constitutional nor parliamentary history presents a 
parallel instance of magnanimous abnegation of power or of ex- 
alted respect for the rights of minorities ! 

And what was the result of their labors ? 

In a State which held 331,726 slaves, one half of its entire 
population in 1860, more than three quarters of whom had been 
specially excepted from the operation of the Proclamation of 
Emancipation, and were still held de jure in bondage, the Con- 
vention declared by a majority of all the votes to which the 
State would have been entitled if every delegate had been pres- 
ent from every district in the State : 

Instantaneous^ universal, uncompensated, unconditional emanci- 
'pation of slaves ! 

It proliihiied forever the 7'ecognition of property in man I 

It decreed Hie education of all children, tvithout distinction of 
race or color / 

It directs all men, white or hlack, to he enrolled as soldiers for 
the public defense. 

It mcJces all men equcd hefore the law ! 

It compels, hy its regeneratinrf spirit, the tdtimate recognition of 
all the rights which National authority can confer upon an oppress- 
ed race ! 

It loisely recognizes for the first time in constitutional history the 
interest of daily labor as an element of power entitled to the protec- 
tion of the State ! 

It authorizes the Legislature to extend the right of suffrage to 
citizens of the United States without distinction of color, in consider- 
ation of military service, payment of taxes, or intellectual fitness 
Hierefor ! 

It has been ratified by the People ! 

" Such is the Free Constitution and Government of 
Louisiana!" 

It has been said that the men of the Convention were un- 
known, unlettered men, unaccustomed to legislative form and 
deficient in parliamentary courtesies. It is not impossible. 
But they add other names to the record of men whose achieve- 



THE EECONSTRUCTION OF STATES. 19 

* raents -were more than commensurate with their opportunities. 
They are types of the ' ' fiery souls that make low names honor- 
able." 

It has surprised me over much that Mr. Davis should be 
alarmed by the possible influence of military officers in Louisi- 
ana. He can not have forgotten the course of events in Mary- 
land ; — the arrest and imprisonment of the Chief of Police and 
of the Police Commissioners ; the substitution of an honorable 
army officer, Col. Kenly, in place of these officers, and his ap- 
pointment of five hundred policemen instead of the armed and 
desperate men who controlled the city and State. He can not 
have forgotten the arrest and imprisonment of members of the 
Legislature at Baltimore, nor the forcible dispersion of the two 
Houses, and subsequent arrest and imprisonment of disloyal 
officers and members in the city of Frederick, by troops sent 
there for that purpose. He can not shut his eyes to the effect 
that such events have had upon the politics of the State, or the 
color they have given to its present opinions, or that the repre- 
sentatives of the people now in office, in whatever capacity, owe 
in an eminent degree their commissions to the pregnant influ- 
ence of these events ! Yet the State of Marjdand had not se- 
ceded. The people were undoubtedly loyal, as subsequent his- 
tory has shown. Members of the Legislature disavowed inten- 
tion of secession. Every officer in the State was the elect of 
the electors. On the record, at least, they did not seem to be in 
serious danger from indictment or trial. The fidelity of the 
Governor was heroism itself The war does not exhibit a nobler 
spirit than that manifested by Governor Hicks ! And yet — 
with exception of the Governor — these men were swept " with 
barefaced power " from the public sight ! 

The part I bore in these transactions, forbids me to question 
their expediency. I accepted the service, and I justified the 
act. There was never a more necessary duty performed by any 
officer of any government. Mr. Davis was not without informa- 
tion of some of these events. That I know. Neither did he 
hesitate to approve the avowed principles upon which they were 
conducted. AVhy, then, should the President be condemned in 
Louisiana, and not in Marvland? Or is he to be condemned 
both in Louisiana and Maryland ? Pardon me ! Nothing has 



20 THE EECONSTEUCTION OF STATES. 

occurred in Louisiana tliat brings tlie affairs of Maryland with- 
in the range of comparison! The President found here, no 
State officers in power. Wholesale arrests of public officers 
have not been made. Private individuals have chiefly felt the 
power of the Government, The full front of his official acts, 
shows only that he has offered to the whole population, upon 
conditions satisfactory to them, and which will answer all the 
demands that the civilized world can make, an opportunity to 
establish a government of their own, in harmony with the 
spirit of the age, offering indemnity for the past and perfect 
security for the future. 

The restoration of Louisiana to the Union upon such a basis 
is an event not second to any that has occurred in this war. It 
will lift more and weightier doubts from enlightened minds at 
home and abroad than any single success in arms. The chances 
of war are proverbial, the results of administration certain. 
No reasonable doubt of the military superiority of the United 
States over the rebels ever existed. The final result was never 
doubted. But how rebel States are to return is a problem that 
has oppressed the minds of men with a weight as universal and 
insoluble as the atmosphere. The satisfactory restoration of one 
State will settle more and weightier doubts than the naked fall 
of Atlanta or Eichmond ! See what the President has done in 
Maryland ! Mark what he has accomplished in Louisiana ! 

The criticism upon the appointment of Governor Hahn, 
which is said to make him dictator of Louisiana, is unworthy 
the care apparently bestowed upon it. Governor Hahn was de- 
signated by the people at a formal free election, after an animat- 
ed canvass, as the man they wished for Governor. The Presid- 
ent then designated him as the Military Governor. This ap- 
pointment does not enlarge, but diminishes his power. It 
jnakes him subordinate to superior military authority. 

A military governor is invested with authority to perform 
civil duties. In the absence of such appointment by the Presid- 
ent, it could be made by the commander of a division or de- 
partment. Inasmuch as the office is not created by law, but 
results from established military usage, as in the case of a mili- 
tary or provost-judge, the confirmation by the Senate is not in- 
dispensable It is the order of the commander-in-chief acting 



THE RECONSTRUCTION OF STATES. 21 

in a military capacity, and tlierefore tlie " counter-signature of 
the Secretary of State," is unnecessary and inappropriate. 

It is unjust to charge upon the President alone a desire for 
the early organization of a State government in Louisiana. 
Before any step was taken by me in this direction, I caused a 
full statement of my purpose and my plan to be laid before Mr. 
Chase, then Secretary of the Treasury, exactly as they were 
afterward excuted, and received from him an unqualified ap- 
proval both of the objects and the measures, accompanied by 
an earnest wish that the experiment might be made without 
delay, not even waiting a formal approval by the President. 

The statement embodied in the manifesto, upon the authority 
of some gentleman here, that an officer of my staif had reported 
the opinion of a Senator, that the bill would fail between the 
Houses, or not reach the President in time for his signature, 
is without substantial foundation. Ko officer, or other person 
connected with me, officially or personall}'', has been in corre- 
spondence with any person in Washington, or received informa- 
tion, direct or indirect, upon this subject. Notwithstanding the 
high respect entertained for the decisions of all branches of the 
Government, this subject had never excited general interest 
here, because it was believed that Congress would establish no 
conditions with which the State would not gladly comply. 

Louisiana can as well defend herself as any of the Middle or 
Atlantic States, or the Border States of the North or West. 
Not one of them is secure against the assaults of a public enemy 
without the assistance of her sister States. Louisiana is no 
more "a shadow; " no more "the creature" of executive will, 
no more "dependent upon the army of the United States," than 
the first and best or all of these States. 

Congress has never formally declared, as stated, that the Gov- 
ernment of Louisiana "shall not be recognized;" nor have 
"her Senators or Representatives been repelled by formal vote." 
Neither Government, Senators, nor Representatives have yet 
asked of Congress recognition or admission. 

It is said: " General Banks candidly declared that the funda- 
mental law of the State was martial law." This is not a full 
nor an exact citation. Though it may answer the purpose in- 
tended, it does not furnish a sound basis for legislation. 



22 THE EECONSTRUCTION OF STATES. 

The dcckratioii in my proclamation was this: "Martial law 
is the fundamental law of the State. It is competent and just 
for the Government to surrender to the people at the earliest 
possible moment so much of military power as may be consist- 
ent with the success of military operations ; to prepare the way 
by prompt "and wise measures, for the full restoration of the 
State to the Union and its power to the people ; to restore their 
ancient and unsurpassed prosperity ; to enlarge the scope of 
agricultural and commercial industry ; and to extend and con- 
firm the dominion of rational liberty." 

The Government accompanied the " declaration " cited, with 
the " surrender "' proposed. It was accepted by the people. 

The Government did not control or assist them. It suffered 
an election to take place. The people have not had the posi- 
tive iiwor of public officers, civil or military. What has been 
done is to be credited to their good sense and their loyalty, act- 
ing by consent of the Government ! 

It is perhaps deeply to be " regretted that the beneficent pro- 
visions of the bill for civil administration of the laws of this 
State should have been annulled by the President." " People 
will die and marry, and transfer property, and buy and sell,'' 
etc. " The President has deprived them of the protection of 
this law," it is said. But the disaster is not as great as the 
authors of the Address imagine. Most of these necessary 
" things," will still be done in the old way. It is even doubtful 
to what extent the wisest legislation of Congress would improve 
Creole custom in such cases. 

That the office of Military Governor has fallen upon Michael 
Hahn is cause of gratitude rather than of sorrow. He belongs 
to the people of the State. Throughout the war he has steadily. 
and stoutly adhered to the Government. He occupies a front 
seat among the opponents of slavery and the friends of free 
labor. Singleness of purpose and simplicity of manner open 
the beaten path of friendship for him to all classes with magic 
power. He unites in himself the varied qualities of the cosmo- 
politan population of Louisiana. Americans, Creoles, Irishmen, 
and Germans recognize in him a brother. To every race he 
speaks its mother tongue. Every ofiicer of the army will tell 
you, that with strong political affinities and warm popular sym- 



THE RECONSTRUCTION OF STATES. 23 

patties, and in position m-uch dependent upon public favor, 
Governor Halin never presented a claim nor asked a favor in- 
consistent with his honor or the interests of his country. They 
are patriots of whom this can be said. It was a fortunate day 
when the President made him " Dictator of Louisiana." Better 
States might well seek 

" A despot of his kind ! 
Such chains as his are sure to bind ! " 

Accept assurances of my consideration. 

K. P. Banks, 
Major-General Commanding. 



Total Number of Votes cast by Soldiers at the Election held on the 22d 
of February, 1864, in Louisiana. 

Parish of St, Tammany, (Madisonville,) Ill 

Pass a I'Outre, (Parish of Plaquemine,) 10 

Port Hudson, (East-Feliciana,) 116 

Fort Butler, (Ascension,) 240 

Fort Macomb, 6 

Along the line of the Opelousas Railroad, '71 

Wood's Cotton Press, (New-Orleans,) 131 

Barrancas, Florida, 108 

Baton Rouge, 15 

Supposed total votes of Soldiers, 808 

Recapitulation of the votes of Soldiers cast in the Louisiana Elections on 

the 5th of September, 1864. 

1. Port Hudson, (East-Feliciana,) 179 

2. Morganza, (Point Coupee,) Infantry, 211 

3. Baton Rouge, (East Baton Rouge,) 13 

4. Carrollton Court-House, (Jeflferson,) 57 

5. New-Orleans, 568 

G. Morganza, (Point Coupee,) Cavalry, 150 



Total number of votes, 1,178 



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